To UK as well?

[mrsB 0]

Is moving TO UK discussed on this forum as well or just moving from UK? I'd have quite a few questions I can't seem to find answers to just by browsing the internet...

[paulinespens 3]

fire away Im sure we will be able to answer your questions here.

Edited January 21, 2010 by paulinespens

[English Muffin 59]

This forum is people moving to the US, although someone might be able to answer your questions. This is a good forum for people moving to the UK from the US.

[mrsB 0]

Okay, then I'm sort of in the right place as I wouldn't be the only one moving to UK, but my US citizen husband might be as well. I'm a citizen of Finland, which is part of the EU and EEA, making it pretty simple for me to just go to UK ans settle down. No hassle really, as far as I know. However... for my husband to move to UK... I'm not really certain how that'll happen. Some sources say that being married to me, makes him pretty much equivalent to EU citizen, meaning he could just come with me, no visa needed or anything. Other sources say all US citizens must obtain certain visas to get to go to UK and most likely it'd even have to be a work visa, meaning he'd also have to acquire a job from the UK before coming. So it's obvious that I'm faaairly confused as to what to do and how to proceed should we go for this idea. I've been waiting for a visa to get to US for about 2 years and regardless of constant pushing we haven't received a decision or update in quite some time (posted about this on the K3-forums several times). I'm personally really fed up having my life on hold, waiting around, doing temporary jobs, living on my parents' couch with no privacy and the other fun stuff I've had to do while I just sit about and wait. So I'm ready to move on. I have a bachelor's degree from college, but the jobs for this industry (culture, arts & media) are pretty hard to come by in Finland... as is pretty much any other job I could be able to do. The original plan for me to move to US came from the fact that I already spoke English pretty much as well as I spoke Finnish and I was done with my education. My husband on the other hand doesn't speak Finnish and he started working straight out of High School and has been making decent money in the US, where as the odds of getting a job with just high school education in Finland are... pretty much non-existant. So! After quite a bit of thought and my friend's successful move to the UK, I started to think that UK might be a good "compromise". They speak English there, so that's half of the win... I'd imagine it'd be easier even for my husband to find a job there - or get education. Obviously there are also more jobs available to me there than here in Finland. UK also seems attractive to me since the flight from here to there is only about 4 hours, and the flights aren't that expensive, so I could visit my family in Finland easily... and of course the flight to USA wouldn't be that long either.

Of course I've heard the stories about insanely cold houses in UK and the country being in a state of panic when it gets snowy but... I'm from Finland and my husband is from Wisconsin, we can handle cold and snow I don't even mind the rain. Plus, we probably wouldn't be heading into the London area, I'd like to move to a smaller town, if possible, for the sake of living expenses and all.

Anyway so, my question is... what documents does an American (married to a European) have to bring with them... and do they need a visa and such..?

And then I noticed that the word This contained a link... Aaaahhh fail...

[gwenneh 7]

It's pretty simple. You can just go and live there, exercise your EU treaty rights. To bring your husband, you file for an EEA family permit.

It's not fast, but last time I checked, it was free. Easy!

Here is the official guidance on the matter.

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/howtoapply/in...ssnationals#Q15

[mrsB 0]

Thanks Gwen!

I looked into the link you provided... it seems a lot of the same troubles we've already been facing trying to get my behind to US... I'm not entirely looking forward to proving our marriage's existance for the 3rd time >_> However, I'm keeping the options open... but how slow is "it's not fast"? Because we've already spent 2 years of our marriage fighting to get into the same country... if we're looking into spending yet another anniversary apart, I think we'll just settle for Finland...

So many times we've been banging our heads against a wall wishing we would've just both been European or something and wouldn't have needed all this hassle... I have been poorly informed in the past about the "ease" of moving to another European country as most "info" I've got so far (from people) has just been "oh you can just go there with your husband". Not very specific! Hehe... Anyway yes, thank you! I also looked into that other forum English Muffin provided a link for. Thanks for the help :]

[gwenneh 7]

I think at last glance it was taking six months or so for the UK to process these EEA applications. It means six months without his passport.